1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates particularly, but not exclusively, to methods and computing apparatus for monitoring status of tables in a restaurant to minimize the amount of time that tables are unoccupied, thereby maximizing the number of table turns for each table.
2. Descripion of the Prior Art
Many modern restaurants are designed to provide various unique and pleasant surroundings to enhance dining pleasure. Such restaurants are often large and have complex layouts of tables, booths, and varius decorative dividers and other decorative objects to enhance privacy for patrons of the restaurant. The discriminating restaurant diner expects excellent service as well as excellent food at such a dining establishment.
It is very important to the management of such restaurants to minimize the amount of time that each table is unoccupied, especially during certain busy periods, such as lunch periods, dinner periods and weekend evenings. However, in large restaurants which are designed to produce "atmosphere", as described above, there is a heavy burden on restaurant personnel, including the hostess, who controls the seating arrangements in the restaurant, the waitresses, and the busboys to monitor the status of all tables in the restaurant in order to make sure that no table remains unoccupied any longer than absolutely necessary for cleaning and resetting, hereinafter referred to as "bussing". The hostess must make lists of parties of various sizes waiting for tables. The hostess must also be able to inform a waiting customer how long he will have to wait for a suitable table. The busboys and waitresses must attempt to communicate the status of a table as customers leave, and as tables are bussed and reset to the hostess, who must somehow remember all of this infomation and quickly summon the next waiting party. Inefficiency in accomplishing these tasks results in longer waiting periods for customers, thereby frequently causing dissatisfaction of waiting customers. The number of table turns (the number of times a table is occupied by new parties) per dinner period or lunch period is also reduced. This usually has a serious negative impact on profitability of the restaurant.
One known system for monitoring status of restaurant tables utilized a separate flip-flop corresponding to each table to indicate whether the table was occupied. Indicator lights on a Master Unit indicated the state of each flip-flop. The flip-flops could be set or reset by the hostess by means of corresponding switches on a Master Unit. The flip-flops could be reset, but not set, by remote switches activated by busboys to indicate when the corresponding tables were bussed and reset.
The problem posed to restaurant managers of improving the efficiency of the procedures for rapidly cleaning and resetting tables, quickly seating waiting customers at tables of appropriate size, is a very difficult problem. One way of solving this problem involves hiring of experts to do time-motion studies. This approach is very costly, and involves voluminous records, and is very time consuming. Another way is to rely on information from restaurant pesonnel; however, such information is likely to be very imprecise. Accurate information regarding the occupancy of tables, and the amount of time that seating and cleaning operations take, etc., is generally difficult to obtain.
There is a need for systems and methods which improve the communication between restaurant personnel to minimize the time during which tables are unoccupied by customers, especially during rush hours. There is a need for improved methods and systems for monitoring the entire service operation and presenting data which is useful to restaurant managers so that the data may be analyzed and acted upon to eliminate specific problems to improve overall operating efficieny of the restaurant.